New Hope on the Horizon for Patients With SCLC

Ariel Lopez-Chavez, MD, medical oncologist, director of precision medicine and developmental therapeutics at Allegheny Health Network Cancer Institute, discusses ongoing research in the small cell lung cancer (SCLC) space.

Trials are currently ongoing, investigating novel agents for the potential treatment of SCLC. Investigators on these studies aim to address the high unmet needs in SCLC.

Lopez-Chavez discusses promising new avenues for SCLC treatment, including with an investigational GM1 antibody by Bristol Myers Squibb which showed encouraging results in combination with nivolumab (Opdivo) in the second-line setting. The agent achieved an 18-month median overall survival and trials are ongoing for its use in both frontline and combination with standard chemotherapy plus nivolumab.

Additionally, Lopez-Chavez highlights the potential of radionuclide therapy for frontline SCLC and the exploration of cellular therapies, which are similar to those being investigated in the non-small cell lung cancer space.

Transcription:

0:09 | There are ones that are currently going towards registration…and we have another GM1 antibody by [Bristol Myers Squibb]. That one looked interesting in their initial results in the refractory setting. In particular, when they combined that with nivolumab [Opdivo] in the second-line setting, they got a median overall survival of around 18 months, which was encouraging. They are bringing it into the frontline setting as well. They are also studying it in combination with carboplatin, etoposide, and nivolumab. The results were not as impressive as with the latter, but it is something to follow-up on.

1:09 | We also have radionuclide therapy also coming into the frontline setting…One more space that I am interested in is the use of cellular therapies. A lot of companies are going in the space of cellular therapies, in solid tumors, in particular in non-small cell lung cancer, and there are some studies now going into small cell lung cancer. That will be interesting to see what therapies are capable of.